


gym class blues

by tempestaurora



Series: hydra's not a home [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Gen, High School, How Do I Tag, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, gym class sucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-07 00:39:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15897369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tempestaurora/pseuds/tempestaurora
Summary: It's Peter Parker's first day at school.He's done a lot in his seventeen years: he's been kidnapped, been raised as a super soldier assassin, has watched all of Star Wars like twice in two weeks - but nothing could've prepared him for high school.On the upside: he's about to meet his best friend for the first time.





	gym class blues

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FanaticFangirl2602](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanaticFangirl2602/gifts).



> yo i didn't know how to do any of the tagging and relationships and junk for this.
> 
> all of these fics are gonna be dedicated to my fave readers + commenters, starting with fanaticfangirl2602 for all their rad as all hell comments and support on the first fic. ur the best, thank u
> 
>  
> 
> you don't have to read the first fic in this series, but you'll probably understand this better if you do?
> 
> in summary: peter is the child of tony and pepper, stolen at age six and raised within hydra to be a weapon. he's back with the fam now and he's starting school for the first time. it's basically just fluff, okay. i just wanted to celebrate peter making a friend, but also about the changes he'd have from canon - like how he doesn't really have to pretend to be bad at sports, because no one has a reference point for him.
> 
> i just wanted to have fun ok

In all honesty, Peter Parker (Peter _Stark_ ) was not amused about the prospect of “school.” He’d watched a lot of movies over the summer since moving in with Tony and Pepper – his lost-then-found-again parents. He’d watched all the ones about high school he could find, too, once Pepper suggested him attending.

 _Mean Girls_ made him nervous. He liked that they were all good and kind to each other at the end, but he didn’t really want to deal with people with those sorts of attitudes. Though he didn’t want to admit it, Peter had a _slight_ temper from his time in HYDRA, and his response to people being rude was, generally, to punch them in the face. Apparently, that wasn’t acceptable behaviour at high school (however, the first three seasons of _Glee_ he watched – before getting bored – begged to differ).

The _High School Musical_ trilogy was more entertaining, but Tony told him to not take it literally. No one burst into song in high school. If Peter did, he’d probably get punched (and then they’d be back at the _no fighting_ rule, again).

Then there was _17 Again_ , _The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Easy A_ – and while he didn’t necessarily like every film he watched, they all told him the same basic thing: high school was going to suck.

“High school doesn’t suck, Peter,” Pepper insisted over dinner.

“No, honey, he’s right,” Tony replied. “High school is a culmination of the worst years of a human’s life – if they’re the best, then you’ve peaked and you’re gonna be bald by thirty, guaranteed.”

That didn’t bode well.

They spent time choosing a school. No one knew that the long lost son of the great and almighty Starks had returned yet – so they didn’t really get a chance to look around and decide. Rather, FRIDAY made a list of the best schools in New York, each with a selection of pros and cons, and Peter ended up deciding between the private Bucks Academy nearby in Manhattan (including uniforms and what seemed to be a horse barn), or the more distant but top STEM school, Midtown, in Queens.

He chose Midtown. Peter didn’t want to admit that he thought horses were freaks of nature – it was best if he never faced it nor the hypocrisy in his words.

 

-

 

His first day of school was midway through August. He’d just had his seventeenth birthday, spent with his family, the Avengers, and a copious amount of ice cream cake. (Natasha had got him a new set of throwing knives. Tony had taken them away. Peter had stolen them back – he _liked_ throwing knives.)

Earlier in the month, he’d sat an exam to get into the school, and they’d forged documents to make it seem like he’d been home schooled previously. On top of that, they registered him under _Parker_ , as if that name didn’t remind him a little too much of the scientist that placed the spider on his bare chest and waited for it to bite. Still, though, he’d passed the exam with flying colours and given a place in the school.

It was a long drive from the nondescript house that Pepper had bought for them to hide out in, but Peter didn’t mind. It gave him time to calm his nerves and breathe. Despite everything HYDRA had done, they’d given him a select set of skills (most of which would be useless within a high school environment). One of those skills was the ability to keep a level head. Pepper had kissed his forehead that morning before leaving for work, telling him that as long as he remained calm and optimistic, he’d have a good day.

He kept those words in mind as Happy parked in the corner of Midtown’s parking lot.

 _I am Peter Parker_ , he thought, taking a long, deep breath. _I am calm. I am optimistic. School doesn’t have shit on me._

He thanked Happy for the ride, agreed to meet him in the same area at the end of the school day, and climbed out.

Immediately, Peter was thrown.

It was a lot like the movies – people milled about the parking lot, the steps, the halls. Kids were everywhere, talking and chatting and laughing. But they were also flying drones and holding pieces of robots and carrying heavy books wherever they went.

Peter tried to ignore them and slipped through the crowd. No one paid him any attention – he was just another face in the crowd; just another person that existed in their space, not worth knowing. He navigated his way to the main office to get his timetable and was directed to his locker, two halls away.

Once there, Peter opened it, then frowned because he had no reason to have one. He could carry everything in his backpack – what was the point of having a locker? He immediately shut it again and jumped at the person standing behind the door.

The man – boy, guy? – was Peter’s height, maybe shorter, with brown skin and a mop of dark hair.

“Did I scare you?” he asked, a smile playing about his lips. “I didn’t mean to do that – you’re just in front of my locker.” Peter frowned, looking at his locker – the one he was standing in front of – and the boy. “That one,” the boy insisted, pointing at the row of lockers by Peter’s feet.

“Oh, shit-” Peter moved back and the kid knelt down to use the lower locker, stowing two text books in there. Briefly, Peter wondered why his sixth sense hadn’t warned him of the kid’s presence – Peter hadn’t jumped or been surprised by something in a long time. It was likely the kid presented no threat, but maybe his sense was telling him that he was better than that; that this kid and the word “threat” didn’t belong in even the same room together.

Peter pushed the thought away as the guy stood up again. “Looks like we’re locker buddies,” he said, friendly and smiling. “I’m Ned. Leeds. Ned Leeds.”

Peter smiled. “Peter Parker.”

“You could be a writer with that kind of name,” Ned immediately responded. He put on a deep, dramatic voice, “Peter Parker: journalist extraordinaire. Crime novelist. Director. Billionaire.”

Peter raised an eyebrow but smiled. “I’m none of those things,” he replied. Was that true, technically? His _father_ was a billionaire. Peter, however, didn’t have a bank account, as far as he was aware. He had the ten dollars he’d found on the floor of his bedroom and also the account numbers to a secret HYDRA trust fund (wait, should he tell Fury about that?) but no account of his own.

“Well, you could fool me with a name like that,” Ned replied with a laugh. “I’ve never seen you before – are you new?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah, it’s my first day.” He fingered the timetable in his hands. “I have no idea where I’m going.”

“I can help,” Ned suggested, and Peter placed his timetable into the kid’s outstretched palm. There was nothing threatening about this guy – and Peter would be able to pick up on it if there was. He had an open expression, a friendly face, a bright smile. As far as Peter could tell, he might be the nicest person he’d ever met. (Hell, even _Pepper_ had her cold, professional demeanour.) “Oh, dude,” he said with a laugh. “It’s fate or something.” Peter tried to peer at the sheet of paper, as if he’d know what any of the room codes meant. “We’re in, like, _all_ the same classes.”

That, decidedly, was the first truly good thing that had happened to him all day.

On the way to homeroom (Peter had heard of it from TV, but he had no idea what it was), Ned gave him a rundown of Midtown. It was split into three parts: one, who to avoid (Flash Thompson was the first name that came up), two, who was actually kind of cool (a girl called Michelle was apparently both super observant and seriously trustworthy), and three, that there was a subtle but defined social hierarchy in the school.

“Oh, I heard about that kind of thing,” Peter said. “I saw it on _Mean Girls_.”

Ned gave him a puzzled look. “Good film,” he agreed. “But I wouldn’t use it as a reference point, despite how _totally accurate_ it is. Anyway – everyone in the school is basically a nerd, but there are cooler nerds and Peter, my friend, I am not one of them.”

Peter let out a bark of surprised laughter. “I think you’re pretty cool,” he said. “I mean, I don’t have much of a reference point _past_ Mean Girls – but you seem nicer than all of them combined.”

Ned grinned then nodded like he understood. “Home schooled?” he asked.

Peter nodded; it was part of the cover story. “Yeah, this is my first time stepping inside a school.”

“That’s rough, buddy,” Ned said. “High school is _not_ a good school experience to have.”

As they entered the classroom, Ned leading them to the seats at the side of the room, they kept up the chatter – mostly weighted on Ned’s side of things – as they got to know each other. Ned was, apparently, pretty good at hacking, had a lot of intricate Lego sets (Peter vaguely knew what Lego was, but Ned seemed enthusiastic about it), and loved _Star Wars_ more than any other film franchise.

“No way,” Peter said with a grin. “I love those movies.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah! I watched, like, all of them twice this summer.”

“Me too!” Ned replied. “Who’s your favourite character? I _love_ Luke, he’s just the best good guy, you know?”

Peter nodded – he got it. “I think I just personally relate to Han Solo,” he replied. “We’re both sarcastic pieces of shit, so I think we’d be great friends.”

 

-

 

The day was, strangely, going great.

The work was not entirely challenging, with the levels of science and maths he’d reached with both HYDRA and Tony, but he didn’t have much experience with classes like English and History, so he knew there’d be something he’d have to work for.

It was going well until the final class. He’d met Ned’s friend, Michelle, at lunch – she’d sat opposite them and barely looked up from her book – and she was now sat on the bleachers on one side, Ned on the other, as the teacher, Coach Wilson, spoke in front of them. (Apparently, lockers were a good place to keep gym clothes between classes, Peter learned.)

Throughout the day, he’d noticed the kid Ned had referred to as Flash Thompson. He’d been in all his classes, a constant, and slightly annoying, presence. His answers weren’t always wrong, but they were consistently not right and said with a cocky attitude.

In the locker rooms, he’d approached Peter for the first time, saying, “Hey, new kid! I know it’s your first day and all, so you couldn’t have known better – but you might want to upgrade your friends before you get labelled as a loser.”

Peter had straightened just slightly, rolling his shoulders back, as he eyed Flash. “Thanks for the offer,” he said. “But I’m fine.” Peter had ignored the way Flash had laughed it off, as if he’d planned that to be the answer. He looked to Ned a moment later. “I’ve only just read the _Harry Potter_ series for the first time,” Peter said, “but wasn’t that like, directly reminiscent of Draco meeting Harry in the first book?”

Ned had laughed, then, as if it were the funniest thing he’d heard all day. Peter did, too. He didn’t get to make people laugh that often.

Coach Wilson had a television on wheels standing by his side and the entire class, bar Peter, groaned when he switched it on.

Peter’s eyes widened as Captain America appeared on screen. He wore his 2012 get-up and spent the next two minutes informing the class about why they should keep up a healthy diet and exercise for thirty minutes a day. Everyone else seemed to know this clip by heart, some mouthing the words as it played. (Michelle, Peter noticed, didn’t look up from her book once.)

“What the hell was that?” Peter whispered to Ned when the teacher told them to run two warm up laps around the gym.

“The PSA? Captain America recorded a whole bunch of them – schools are legally mandated to play them. Some are about detention, lab safety, libraries. Everyone thought we’d all behave because Captain America said to – but we all kinda hate him now. Plus, there was that whole _war criminal_ thing.”

Peter could’ve run five laps in the time everyone else ran their two, but he stayed at the back, jogging at Ned and Michelle’s pace (she didn’t stop reading the whole time) as Ned impersonated Steve Rogers.

It was going fine until Flash appeared beside him, half-heartedly jogging.

“So, Penis,” he started, “that is your name right? Penis Parker?”

Peter raised an eyebrow, kept moving. “I don’t think you’re one to talk about names,” he replied, even. “But I don’t want to touch the whole _naming your child ‘Flash’_ disaster.”

Flash’s face _flashed_ (get it?) in anger, but Michelle beat him to a response. “You don’t have to,” she said, flipping the page of her book. “His parents actually named him Eugene. _He_ was the one that thought Flash was a good name.”

Peter laughed and Flash sped up his pace. Peter glanced over to Michelle, finding her nose out of her book for the first time, and they shared a quick smile before she turned back to the page.

Still, Flash was an annoyance. Nothing more, as far as Peter could tell. He was a genetically-engineered super soldier with throwing knives (not on his person – even Peter knew they didn’t belong in a school) – Flash Thompson was barely even on his radar.

(“All the movies I watched indicate that I’ll get into at least one fist fight during my school career,” Peter had informed his parents at dinner.

“No, they don’t,” Pepper had replied. “Those movies follow the statistically unlikely people who _do_ get into fist fights at school. All those background characters lead normal, non-violent lives.”

“Pepper,” Peter said, dry. “ _I’m_ statistically unlikely.”

“Then it’s even unlikelier that someone statistically unlikely would do something so statistically unlikely,” she’d responded.

Tony had looked between the two of them. “I know literal rocket science and I didn’t follow any of that.”

The conversation had ended with the agreement that if Peter _did_ get into a fight, he wasn’t to use his super strength. He’d pull his punches, get out of there, and not kill anyone.)

Peter figured it was unlikely he’d ever get into a fight with Flash Thompson, but everything about him was unlikely; so Peter kept a vague eye on the situation, but didn’t place any effort into it.

At the end of the warm up, things decidedly went downhill.

In the centre of the gym was a collection of crash mats and two ropes, hanging from the ceiling. The class (again, bar Peter) groaned at the sight.

“Alright, alright,” Coach Wilson said, waving a hand. “I know. Rope climbing sucks. But it’s on the syllabus. You’re all gonna give it a go before you leave today. There’s no prize for ringing the bell other than satisfaction.”

Two at a time, the class started climbing the ropes. While most people stuck around to watch, Wilson had set up other mats and exercises for people to do. Peter probably wasn’t supposed to show off, but he completed push up sets in a likely record time and resorted to holding Ned’s feet as he worked on sit-ups.

“Thompson,” Wilson called out as a girl climbed down from the rope. She’d made it half way up before deciding to come back down again. “Leeds. You’re up.”

Ned let out a long sigh and Peter wandered over behind him as Ned prepared himself to climb the rope.

“I’m against fatty?” Flash asked with a laugh. “That’s not a competition.”

“It’s _not_ a competition,” Wilson replied. “Also, insults are a no-no. Climb your rope Thompson.”

“Bet you won’t make it half way,” Flash jeered, before starting to climb.

Peter cheered Ned on from the side lines as Ned tried to pull himself up the rope, but for the first time that day, Flash was right. Ned didn’t make it half way up the rope before his hands slipped and he landed hard on the mate.

“Dude,” Peter said, ducking forward. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” Ned replied. “That’s some kind of cruel and unusual torture.”

Flash laughed from half way up his rope. He made it another few inches before falling back down, himself, but he didn’t seem to care. “Told you, lardo,” he mocked. “Surprised the rope even held you for that long.”

Peter stood. “You wanna knock that off?” he asked.

“Nah,” Flash replied, standing. “I’m good. But you might not want to use that rope, Leeds probably weighed it down so much it’ll snap next time.”

Peter rolled his eyes, stretching out a hand to haul Ned up from the ground. “If it weren’t my first day, I’d kick his ass,” he said to Ned with a huff.

“Like you could!” Flash jeered, turning on one foot to leave the mats and rejoin his friends.

“Is he always like that?”

“Yeah,” Ned said with a shrug. “I think he came out of the womb a jerk.”

“Parker, Sullivan, you’re up next.”

“Oh!” Flash called, spinning back around to watch. “I wanna see this.”

Peter sighed as Ned stepped off the mat to watch. He rolled his neck twice, looked up the rope and remembered, briefly, of his parents’ warnings not to use his powers. He probably didn’t need his powers for this anyway – he was strong in his own right. Still, though-

He really wanted Flash to squirm.

Sullivan made slow, barely-there progress on his rope and Peter took a few steps back, to get a better height on his jump. When he did so, he clung to the rope immediately, his muscles tensing as his pulled himself up, one arm at a time. He made quick work of the rope, methodically and rhythmically climbing. He’d climbed a lot of ropes like this in the past, and he knew the tricks to it.

For the first time that class, the bell rung.

Peter climbed back down most of the way before jumping back onto the mat.

People were looking, but he didn’t care, choosing to grin at Ned and spare a single glance at Flash’s tense face.

“Holy crap, Parker,” Wilson said. “We don’t ever get students that are actually good at sports here. You should join one of the teams.”

“Which team?” Peter asked.

“Literally any. We’re low on membership. We’re a STEM school.”

Ned laughed and Peter grinned widely at his new friend. They exchanged phone numbers on the way out of school, Ned still raving about how pissed Flash had been, then suddenly gawking at Peter’s brand new StarkPhone and forgetting all about gym class.

(“Just make one friend,” Pepper had told him. “One friend, and you’ll be fine.”)

Ned Leeds was Peter Parker’s one, firm friend. He was pretty sure he’d made an excellent choice.

**Author's Note:**

> aye thanks for reading. if u havent read the first fic in the series, why not read it now?? its good i promise.
> 
> i wrote this bc i wanted to write something cute. its not a masterpiece but i care about ned and peter's friendship so i wanted everyone to see them meet. also i lied to all of u by claiming irondad spiderson content and im a fraud sorry there's a bigger readership there than the ned leeds & peter parker readers lmao
> 
> pretty please hit the kudos and talk to me in the comments. if u have any ideas for fics in this series, let me know here or on my tumblr (tempestaurora) and have a good week! (hug ur pets for me)
> 
> edit: the next fic in the series (the long awaited for buzzfeed unsolved fic) will be out on either the 5th or 6th of september


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